


Warmth

by madaboutasoiaf



Series: 2014 Arya x Gendry Week [3]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: AryaxGendry Week, F/M, Prompt Fill, kind of a missing scenes within canon attempt, set during ASOS
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-24
Updated: 2014-07-24
Packaged: 2018-02-10 05:22:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2012529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/madaboutasoiaf/pseuds/madaboutasoiaf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Day 5 of A x G Week. Warmth</p>
<p>Four times Arya found warmth from Gendry's company</p>
            </blockquote>





	Warmth

**Author's Note:**

> I interpreted warmth a little differently in places... I think it works?

1.

Arya stood back sullenly. She watched the men, trying to figure out if she might get away. There were too many of them and they watched her too. She glared at Harwin again. _He was my father’s man._ She wanted to go to Riverrun. She did not _want_ to be a captive.

Gendry appeared beside her.

“It’s cold here.

Arya scowled at him. “We should not be here. I _told_ you we were going the wrong way.”

“You did,” Gendry admitted. “It made no difference though. You’d never get away.”

Arya did not feel so certain of that. They stood together for a little while.

“You are shivering,” Gendry said. “We should sit by the fire.”

Arya shook her head. “I don’t want to sit with them. I’m their captive, they are not my friends.”

Gendry got that stubborn look on his face.

“Fine,” he replied. “I won’t go sit there either then.”

He stood next to her and it was not long before Arya saw him shivering too. She waited just a little longer then she began to feel bad.

“You should be sitting by the fire,” she told him. “You’re being stupid.”

He gave her a look then that made her feel angry and guilty at the same time.

“I’ll go then,” she said reluctantly. “I’ll go sit by the fire.”

Gendry followed her quickly enough. He sat next to her, both of them holding their hands out to try and capture the warmth from the flames. It took a little while but Arya finally felt the cold fading away. Her eyes met Gendrys before she looked back at the flames.

_The outlaws are not my friends_ she told herself, _but Gendry is._

2.

Arya was not afraid sleeping outside. The outlaws made japes and she saw Lem clout one behind the ear when he said something about guarding her from the wolves by keeping her warm but they were just being stupid.

_I am a wolf. I don’t need to be guarded from them._

She heard a noise and turned over. It was Gendry. She didn’t realise he was sleeping so close by. He moved again in his sleep and Arya tried to huddle under her coverlet. She wanted to dream again. The wolf dreams were the best part of sleeping. In them she wasn’t somebody’s captive, she was strong and fierce and all the men were afraid of her.

_In my dreams I can kill them all. Nobody can catch me or hurt me._

She pulled the coverlet around her and squeezed her eyes shut. It was no good though. As soon as she felt sleep coming she jerked awake, alert and with a chill in her bones. Her coverlet was gone, caught by the wind and blown away. She sat up and looked around her but she did not see it.

“What is it Arya?” Gendry asked in a sleepy voice.

“Nothing,” she said quickly. “Go back to sleep.”

He didn’t though. He got up and moved to sit beside her. Arya chewed her lip. She suddenly felt the urge to cry like a stupid little girl. She did not want to be here, she wanted to be in Winterfell with her family where it was warm. She wanted to go to the Wall and see Jon.

_I will be even colder there but I wouldn’t care if Jon was with me._

She startled when something landed in her lap. She looked down to see a cloak.

“Go back to sleep Arya,” Gendry said.

She glanced over to see he had huddled back down under his own cover but facing her. She picked up the cloak. It was a little smelly but that didn’t matter. She wrapped it around her and wriggled closer to Gendry.

“Thank you.”

He only grunted in response. Arya closed her eyes once more. It took a little while but the cloak took away the chill. She slowly became sleepy again and when she slept she dreamed. By the time morning came she felt stronger again.

_I was a wolf again._

Gendry said nothing about it but she did not forget. She held onto the cloak tightly until she had to return it. It was just a cloak but it meant so much more than that.

3.

Arya heard the noise and followed it. When she entered the forge Gendry was busy at work. She sat and watched him beating on the steel. The heat he used to work did not just soften the metal. The whole forge felt warm. Arya did not want to leave, especially with it raining outside.

“What are you going to make?” she asked curiously when Gendry paused.

Gendry shrugged. “I’ll fix things first. Lots of the armour and weapons are damaged.”

She watched him a little longer. He never seemed to really tire. He gave her a queer look after a while.

“They will wonder what you are doing in here.”

Arya bit her lip. “No they won’t.”

He soaked a breastplate in water and it hissed.

“Highborn girls don’t spend their days sitting in the forge.”

Arya snorted. “You don’t know much about highborn girls then. I used to watch Mikken work in the forge at Winterfell sometimes.”

Gendry smiled. “I should have guessed that of you m’lady.”

She gave him a shove and the breastplate almost slipped from the tongs.

“Hey,” he exclaimed. “That wasn’t very ladylike.”

Arya immediately became contrite.

“I’m sorry.”

He set the breastplate down and selected another piece of steel.

“I could help you,” she offered.

Gendry gave her another queer look.

“You couldn’t lift the hammer.”

“I could too,” she retorted defensively.

Gendry laughed at her and it made her mad until he stopped and smiled again.

“I need more water,” he said.

Arya busied herself running back and forth fetching water while Gendry kept working. She was dirty and tired by the time she finished but she could see that Gendry had done good work or at least _she_ thought he had. He washed his hands in the fresh pail of water and she startled when he took out a cloth and wiped at her cheek.

“You have dirt on your face,” he explained.

She looked at herself. “It matches the rest of me.”

Arya knew her mother would be upset if she saw her now. Sansa would look disgusted. She tried not to think about it because she felt warm inside. It was not from the forge, it was a different warmth. She had not felt it since Joffrey had her father killed and it was because of Gendry.

She smiled at him and he smiled back. It was his company which made her feel warm. Gendry was one person she could count on, even if he was a stupid stubborn bull sometimes.

_He is my true friend._

4.

Arya felt so angry at Gendry for choosing the Brotherhood. The Hound took her and she felt cold and alone once more. Every day she was weak again, tied up to sleep so she would not escape. The Brotherhood saw her as a captive for ransom too but they did not treat her as Sandor did.

She still dreamed her dreams, her red and savage wolf dreams. She wished she were that strong during the day. If she was then the Hound would never threaten to beat her. She would hurt him for it. She would not be alone and cold any more. Her brothers and sisters, the wolves would be with her.

She suffered through her days. Sandor was not company. He did not even let her speak much. It took her time, a lot of time to find any warmth again. The fires did not warm her, not truly. She did not feel warm until she thought of that other feeling, that feeling of being cared for. She thought of childhood memories of her family and of Jon Snow’s smile. She thought of him mussing her hair and calling her little sister.

She even thought of Gendry. He left her and he was not her pack. Still she remembered all those little things he did. She remembered sitting by the fire, the cloak he offered her and his laughter. She remembered his warm fingers tickling her and even him calling her m’lady. Thinking of Gendry made her feel angry and it made her feel frustrated but it also made her feel something else.

Thinking of Gendry made her feel warm.


End file.
